House's putt helps team win Blowout in playoff

Published 7:12 pm, Sunday, July 29, 2012

Robert House chips onto the number one green Friday during the first round of the Blowout at Ranchland Hills Golf Club. Cindeka Nealy/Reporter-Telegram

Robert House chips onto the number one green Friday during the first round of the Blowout at Ranchland Hills Golf Club. Cindeka Nealy/Reporter-Telegram

Photo: Cindeka Nealy

House's putt helps team win Blowout in playoff

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For two teams that had done battle countless times before, it was only fitting that the Ranchland Hills Blowout end in a playoff.

And Sunday, it was Robert House sinking about a two-foot putt after a beautiful approach shot on the par-4 18th to win it for the team of House, KT Livingston, Bobby Whiteside and Matt Phillips.

The birdie, just House's second of the day, gave his team a razor thin victory over its friendly rivals Mark Terry, Gary Johnson, Ken Livingston and John Ironside.

"We play a lot of golf with those guys, so it's just fun to have it come down like it did," House said. "It was a good tournament."

Added Phillips: "It's a blast -- that's why we came out here."

Just moments earlier, the pressure was on the team of Terry, Johnson, Livingston and Ironside as they needed Livingston to make a putt for par on 18 to force the playoff.

With a caravan of golf carts stationed right outside the green to watch what may have been the final putt, Livingston admitted to feeling the pressure of the situation. But what he didn't know was that no spectator wanted him to make the putt more than his four opponents.

"My dad had the putt to send it to the playoff, and I wanted him so badly to make it," KT Livingston said of his father, Ken. "I didn't want him to miss it, I wanted him to make it really bad because (a playoff) was just perfect -- that was just absolutely perfect."

Ken Livingston, a former professional, granted everyone's wish by tuning out the pressure and sinking the putt to force the playoff.

"We needed to go one more," Ken said.

House helped put the pressure right back on Ken and his teammates by hitting an approach shot that hit right above the cup and bounced twice as the crowd roared before settling about two feet above the cup.

House, who said the shot felt good the moment he hit it, didn't even see his shot hit the green, but knew by the crowd reaction that he had hit a good one. Ken Livingston, of course, wasn't nearly as happy to see the shot, even though he knew it was bound to happen.

"All the air leaves your body," Ken said. "He hit an excellent shot. When you get eight players on one hole like that something's going to happen.

"That's a lot of good players taking aim at one hole, something's going to happen."

After the rest of the players made par on the hole, House calmly sank the short putt for the win. The clutch performance even caused Phillips to borrow the "Bob Murphy" nickname, normally reserved for his opponent, Johnson, in reference to the former PGA Tour player, and use it to describe House.

"Bob House over here," Phillips said with a smile, "(he had) ice in his veins."

For Whiteside, it was his second time winning the Blowout after playing on the winning team in 2010. But afterwards, his focus was on his buddy, House.

"He hit a great shot, I was excited for him," Whiteside said. "He's one of my best friends, so it was fun to see him hit that shot."

And each of the four was happy to take a win against their friendly rivals in their latest competition.

"Oh, we had bragging rights," KT Livingston said. "They just stayed in the same place."

And while Ken Livingston and his teammates were disappointed to go down after the teams were neck and neck the entire tournament, they weren't upset about losing to that team.

"You go hole by hole, you go shot by shot and you try to do the very best you can and you add it up when it's over," Ken said. "And if you have to lose and you lose to young men like that you did OK."